Police: Woman confronted at vehicle burglary blames man  but he was already in jail

Thursday

Nov 8, 2012 at 12:01 AMSep 24, 2015 at 11:38 AM

By STEVE NASHsteve.nash@brownwoodbulletin.com

It was, seemingly, not a good night for a 19-year-old Brownwood woman.

First, the woman told police, she left her cell phone and bicycle behind when she fled after committing a vehicle burglary around 2 a.m. Wednesday.

The woman returned to try to retrieve her phone and found herself speaking with Brownwood police officer Jesse Mares. She told Mares she knew who'd committed the burglary. The suspect the woman named, though, had been in jail for a week.

"He is?" the woman replied when confronted with that information. She named another suspect — one of her friends.

Finally, the woman told Mares she was the one who'd committed the burglary. Mares arrested Tasia Webb on charges of burglary of a vehicle and filing a false report. Webb is free on bonds totaling $4,000.

According to Mares' report:

Mares was dispatched at 2:09 a.m. Wednesday to the 1300 block of Avenue B, where, Mares was told, someone had stolen a laptop computer from a pickup and left behind a cell phone and bicycle.

Mares arrived to see the victim of the burglary pointing at a female, who was walking away in an apparent attempt to avoid Mares. Mares called the woman back, and she said she knew who committed the burglary. She provided a first name — Anthony. Mares filled in a last name to go with the name Anthony — a person who, Mares' report states, is a known burglar. Mares asked the woman if that was the suspect and she said yes.

The woman said Anthony had stolen the laptop and taken it to her residence in the 1300 block of Avenue A. Officer Danny Hutchins followed the woman to her residence and retrieved the stolen laptop, and returned with the laptop, mouse and charger. The victim of the burglary identified the property as his.

Mares went to another residence to speak with Anthony, where Anthony's parents said their son had been in jail for a week. Mares went to the woman's residence on Avenue A and told her Anthony, the man she named as the suspect, was in jail.

The woman "put her hands on her head and let out a big sigh as if she had been caught in a lie," Mares' report states.

The woman told Mares she'd said the name Anthony because it was the first name that came to her mind. Then she said the real suspect was a friend of hers who lives in a Brownwood apartment.

The woman then told Mares she was the burglar. She said she'd been at her girlfriend's house and was riding home on a bicycle when she passed a pickup parked near a residence, saw a cooler in the bed and decided she wanted something to drink.

The woman noticed one of the pickup's doors was slightly cracked. She entered the pickup and looked around, using her cell phone for lighting. The woman saw a laptop in the pickup. The victim's girlfriend came outside and saw that the pickup's door was open, and the woman fled with the laptop, mouse and charger, leaving the bicycle and phone behind.

In other incidents:

• Officer Brandon Johnson was dispatched Wednesday to the Law Enforcement Center, where he took a report of the theft of an air conditioner. A suspect was identified.

• Officer Walker Willey was dispatched Wednesday to the 800 block of First on a report that a man had assaulted his common law spouse. The man was gone when police arrived.

• Officer Brandon Miller was dispatched Wednesday to the 400 block of North Greenleaf on a report that a man was assaulting a woman. Miller arrested Scott Keith, 29, of Brownwood, on an assault charge.

• Willey was dispatched Wednesday to Brownwood High School on a report that a juvenile had a BB gun on a bus. Willey took possession of the gun, which was an airsoft gun with an orange tip, and contacted the juvenile's mother.

• Officer Steve Woodard responded Tuesday to the 1600 block of Melwood, where a woman said another woman had been driving by and making obscene gestures.

Others booked into the Brown County Jail between 8 a.m. Wednesday and 8 a.m. Thursday were: